Why Cloud Solutions are Actually BETTER for HIPAA Compliance

Posted by John Feucht on Aug 19, 2014 6:00:00 AM

cloud_in_handsYour small medical practice doesn’t have much in common with mega-large hospitals and medical centers, except this: You’re as responsible for complying with the Security Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as they are. You have to keep your patients’ personal health information—in all forms, hard copy and digital—as secure as they do.

That’s easy enough for the big guys, but you can’t afford the luxury of an on-site server room, a team of IT professionals, and a fulltime compliance officer. Maintaining your medical practice’s computer system is just one of the many hats you wear. How can you achieve HIPAA compliance without overwhelming yourself or spending money you don’t have?

One solution that has worked for many small medical practices is moving your computer systems off-site, allowing them to by hosted by a trusted partner that specializes in providing IT services to healthcare businesses like yours.

Can You See Yourself in the Cloud?

You may have heard of the IT buzzword, “the cloud,” and dismissed the idea out-of-hand. Handing your IT operations off to someone else has—at first glance, anyway—some pretty obvious drawbacks. You might be thinking:

  • “Wouldn’t it be safer (and better for HIPAA compliance) to keep all my sensitive data in-house?”
  • "Can I trust another business with my patients’ information?”
  • “That sounds expensive.”

For many reasons, however, the cloud is actually easier and cheaper for complying with HIPAA’s regulations than trying to do it on-site. Here are three of those reasons:

1. The Cloud Can Make World-Class HIPAA Compliance More Affordable

The cloud allows small businesses to take advantage of economies of scale that are usually only enjoyed by large organizations. A good IT provider will own all of the hardware and software licenses that large companies use to maintain their HIPAA compliance: servers, enterprise-class firewalls, routers, switches, plus the physical datacenter space and management capability to perform regular and complete data backups (a major requirement of HIPAA).

There is no way your small business would ever be able to afford the $100,000 or more it costs for this kind of setup (the licensing for a decent security tool alone would run you anywhere from $4,500 to $60,000 per year), yet, by outsourcing your IT, you’ll have access to the same level of protection for a relatively low and stable monthly fee.

2. Outsourced IT Providers Have HIPAA Expertise

The HIPAA Security Rule is a long and complicated series of regulations, having to do with specific data security technology as well as policy and best practices. This is a lot to digest and keep up-to-date on, for you and for the other members of your team (HIPAA compliance is everybody’s job).

You all have other things to worry about: scheduling appointments, treating patients, keeping the books in order. An outsourced IT provider that specializes in working with medical practices will be an expert in the ins and outs of HIPAA and will know exactly what to do to keep your system compliant in every circumstance.

For example, if you’re looking into new medical records software, your IT provider will most likely have worked with it before and will be able to help you anticipate compliance issues, helping you make a better-informed decision.

3. A Single IT Provider is Better for HIPAA Compliance Than Many

One common alternative to an in-house IT system is a “scattered” model. With this approach, a small medical practice will, for example, go with one vendor for a web-based medical records system and another vendor for email. Does this seem familiar?

When you have as many vendors as you do elements of your system, it means you’ll have your work cut out for you researching and vetting each vendor for HIPAA compliance. HIPAA compliance is much simpler when you have a single vendor for all your IT needs. That way, you won’t have to spend all your time worrying about the compliance weak points in your system. And, as is often the case, consolidating everything IT under one roof will be cheaper in the long run.

Is the cloud the HIPAA compliance solution you’ve been looking for for your medical practice? Find out more in our free white paper, “HIPAA Compliance in the Cloud.”

Download the free whitepaper - HIPAA Compliance in the Cloud

Topics: HIPAA

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